Bread and Butter Pudding with Chocolate, Marmalade, Custard and Panettone / Bread and Butter Pudding com Chocolate, Doce de Laranja Amarga, Custard e Panettone.

It took me almost 12 years in the UK to make my first Bread and Butter Pudding!!

A quintessential British Pudding that (shame on me, I know) I always thought it would be strange and never rang my bells...

I'm not untitled to give my opinion about the regular Bread and Butter Puddings because I've never made or tasted one before but, this one, the one I'm sharing with you today, is so utterly delicious, decadent and moreish that, the only thing I could think after tasting it was:

Why????

Why does it took me so long to make and try such an amazing dessert???

Hope the British people forgives me because I'm totally surrounded to Bread and Butter Pudding!

This recipe is from Jamie Oliver "Christmas Cookbook", which is the book of the month chosen by Deborah for her Rainydaybites Cook Book Club and I'm so glad I gave the Bread and Butter Pudding an opportunity and specially with this recipe!! Truly and utterly divine!

Georgian Chicken Soup / Sopa de Galinha da Geórgia.

Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan.

Georgian cuisine often marries western techniques with eastern flavours and to find out more about its uniqueness, you should read this amazing and very interesting article.

To create this chicken soup, Christopher Kimball was inspired by a traditional Georgian recipe called "Chikhirtma".

As we love (specially the kids) chicken soup here at home, this recipe was one of the first ones I've marked down to try from Christopher Kimball's "Milk Street - The New Home Cooking". The book of the month for the online #rainydaybitescookbookclub!

As soon as I started reading the recipe, a similar soup came up to my mind. The Greek Avgolemono soup. A soup that we loved a lot and that is also finished with eggs and lemon juice.

This Georgian soup I'm posting today is rich, full of flavour, creamy and so comforting for these cold days that, if you try it, I can assure you'll be making it over and over again.

Spanish Garlic Soup / Sopa de Alho Espanhola.

This month, Deborah chose Christopher Kimball's "Milk Street - The New Home Cooking" as the book of the month for the online #rainydaybitescookbookclub!

This cookbook features 125 recipes from all around the world where the focus is maximizing flavour using simple recipes where flavours are layered.

The recipes don't require long lists of ingredients, unusual appliances, or spending all day standing over the stove. The recipes are interesting, varied, and simple to make.

Kimball states that, "cooking and sharing food is central to the human condition" and he also dedicates this book "... to the notion that cooking is the universal language of the human spirit".

How inspiring are these sentences?

Last week, as the first recipe challenge of the month, we cooked this absolutely divine Cuban Style Pork Shoulder with Mojo Sauce, which was to die for and I'll post the recipe here, sometime soon.

I have lots of recipes marked down to be tried from the book but, this one (soup... you know I love soups right?), had to be the first one to be shared.

A soup that is super simple to make, calls for very humble ingredients and that is packed full of flavour.

According to the recipe book caption, this is an " 'end of month' recipe - the sort of meal to make quickly with whatever is on hand and when money is tight" and it is indeed!!

Citrus Cake with Citrus Frosting and Candied Oranges and Lemons / Bolo de Citrinos com frosting de Citrinos e Laranjas e Limões Confitados.

After being unable to take part on Deborah's Rainydaybites Cook Book Club for the last two months, this month I couldn't miss it at all. Specially being this month chosen book, a baking book.

The book Deborah choose for September is the Brian Hart Hoffman "Bake from Scratch" book. A book full of mouthwatering cakes, cookies, breads, sweet breads and a lot more.

As the first recipe challenge, Deborah chose this citrus cake and, although here at home everybody else are chocolate lovers, me, I'm the total crazy citrus lover and so, this cake was right up to my taste.

I have to say that even the chocolate lovers of the house loved it and the cake went down a storm with all of them so, success!!

The original cake is a 4 layers cake and the frosting is made with cream cheese. I halved the recipe and made a 2 layers cake and used mascarpone cheese to make the cake.

I'm leaving you the original and complete recipe but, feel free to halve it as I did.

Fish Soup Basquaise / Sopa de Peixe Basca.

This month we are cooking from Paula Wolfert cook books for the Rainydaybites Cookbook Club.

The book Deborah chose was the "Unforgettable" but as it is a very difficult book to find, Deborah allowed us to cook from any of Paula's books.

I'm cooking from Paula Wolfert "The Cooking of South West France" book and this recipe is actually my first one for this month's cookbook club.

I can only compare Paula Wolfert book with Julia Child or Elizabeth David books, which, in my opinion, should be mandatory books for anyone that claims their love for cooking.

More than cooking books, they are reading books that show us their passion and deep knowledge for the cuisine and ingredients of the regions they're writing and cooking from.

To write this book, Paula Wolfert spent five years researching, investigating ingredients, origins of recipes and variations in techniques.

This recipe, a fish soup, not just is easy to make, but it's also fabulous and full of flavour.

According to the author, this soup is a modern interpretation of the classic onion and pepper fish soup of Bayonne.

Warm Squid salad with Cucumber, Mint and Aioli / Salada quente de Lulas, Pepino, Menta e Aioli.

This month we are cooking from the absolutely gorgeous Melissa Clark book "Dinner", for the Rainydaybites online Cook Book Club.
I already told you about this book in this post, when I posted this fabulous chicken recipe and, today, I'm leaving you this super delicious salad. A warm salad, with ingredients that I love.

A fabulous combination and explosion of flavours and textures that tantalizes your taste buds.

Micro Steamed Asparagus with Poached Egg and Walnut Vinaigrette / Espargos no microondas com Ovo Escalfado e Vinagrete de Noz.

"The Food Lab" by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is the book Deborah chose for April's Rainydaybites Cook Book Club.

As you can guess by the name, The Food Lab is more than a recipe book. Its's a book about cooking through science, meaning, cooking techniques that should be adopted instead of others, depending on the ingredients, tips, tricks, explanations about how things happen and why, etc.

It is a very interesting book and I'm loving exploring it.

The first recipe that I tried was this one. Not just because I was very curious about the method used to cook the asparagus, but also because of the walnut vinaigrette that caught my attention straightaway.

I confess that I never cooked asparagus in the microwave and I have to say, this method really works!!

Croquembouche with Cardomon and Orange filling & Salty Caramel / Croquembouche com Creme Pasteleiro de Cardamomo e Laranja e Caramelo Salgado.

31st of March!! My day! My Birthday!! well, mine and my sister's so, happy Birthday to me and to my much beloved sister that I love as much as I love my own self!

And, I think, celebrating my birthday with a croquembouche it's a pretty way to celebrate it right?!

Have I ever made choux pastry until today? No! Never!!

Have I ever made a croquembouche or profiteroles or eclairs until today? Never!!!

This was my very first time making choux pastry. Actually, not the first! Second, because I attempted this a few weeks ago and burned my caramel (and a few fingers too...) so, my croquembouche was a failure. Well, actually, not a total failure, because it taught me that making choux pastry is way, way easier than I ever thought it would be and therefore, after burning my caramel, I was not scared to attempt a second Croquembouche.

This one!

I think it's not perfect but, it's quite pretty and certainly, very delicious!

The cardamom and orange filling is to die for and all together, it's a very satisfying dessert.

The recipe is another triumph from Yvette van Boven "Home Baked" book and it is the second and last recipe challenge of the month. 

As I wrote here, every month Deborah asks us to make and publish, on a certain day, two recipes from the chosen book of the month. March wise, this Pie was the first recipe challenge and this Croquembouche is the second and last recipe challenge of the month.

You can find all the recipes I made for the Rainydaybites Cook Book Club under the label with the same name and you can read more about this online Cook Book Club, in this post.

Melted Cheese Pizza / Pizza com Queijo derretido.

Another recipe for the super fantastic Deborah - Rainydaybites Cook Book Club.

A recipe from the book of the month, which is the fabulous Yvette van Boven "Home Baked" book (I told you about it in this post).

This time it's a savoury recipe. Pizza!

Who doesn't like pizza? I don't know anyone that don't like it!

Although this pizza is slightly different from the conventional pizza, it is, in all ways, as good as..., I mean...

BETTER!!

Millionaire's Shortbread with Salty Caramel & Coconut / Millionaire's Shortbread com Caramelo Salgado e Coco.

The first recipe from a book that I have from ages and from which I never made any recipe until now.

Last week I found a cook book club on Instagram that caught my attention straightaway.

Deborah Balint chooses a book every month and challenges us to cook from that book.

Of course, I think it's a brilliant idea and of course, I embraced it straightaway, because it will oblige me to use and cook from books that I have and are forgotten.

This month, the chosen book is "Home Baked" by Yvette van Boven. A book that I have for ages and from which I never made a thing until now so, thank you for reminded me of this book Deborah.

The book is a beauty and full of sweet and savoury home baked treats and this is the first recipe that I chose, because I knew it would go down a storm with my husband and kids and, indeed, it went down a storm!!

You'll see lots of Yvette's recipes this month on the blog, as, hopefully, I'll be baking from it a lot!